Perhaps a bit melodramatic but at this point it looks like 2020 is over as far as brevets are concerned, at least longer ones.
Here's the sad story...
My adoring public of regular readers will know that I've had ongoing back issues that have caused several DNF/DNS beginning in 2014. To recap the year thus far:
- I was injured (severe Soleus strain) in late January/early February (update 7/14: nope, not the Soleus, the back)
- Gradually increased the mileage: 528 in February, 546 in March, 677 in April
- Gradually increased the distance but longest rides this year are in the 60-80 mile range
- Started doing hill repeats/Everesting in mid-April. Ramped up to longer efforts with 4X repeats, 6X repeats, 10x repeats and the first serious effort on April 22 with 24 repeats on Bunker Hill.
- Repeated the longer hill repeats/Everesting rides on May 2nd and May 15th.
- In the interval between April 22 and May 15th did four rides of 60-70 miles.
- Since May 15th I've been focused more on doing some longer rides (no more hill repeats) and did 5 rides of 60 miles or longer in the last 3 weeks.
On Saturday, June 6th I did a 70 mile ride that included 4 longer climbs and had 3,822 feet of climbing overall (55 feet/mile). Not flat but not egregiously hilly either. The ride concluded on Wildcat Mountain and I did that at what I'd describe as a moderately hard effort (8:15 vs a PR of 7:48). It should be noted that my "PR" was set in the middle of a 300K so it's not as though I was out there chasing KOM's.
The next day, my back was a little sore. Not debilitating by any means, just a dull ache and (sadly) nothing really out of the ordinary. I did a short, easy 18 mile ride on the Cruzbike.
On Monday, my back really hurt and my glutes and left hamstring felt tight. Ice, heat, gentle stretching a couple of times that day.
On Tuesday, all hell broke loose. I couldn't even get out of bed without extreme pain. By far the worst I've ever had with my back. The pain is actually localized in my left glute right at the hip/femoral joint but my back also hurts as does my hamstring/calf. I'm basically a cripple and am hobbling about. Strenuous activity (tying my shoes, getting up from a chair, even sitting) is agonizing.
As I write this on Friday, I've spent the last three days doing the ice/heat/gentle stretching routine several times a day. No improvement at all to this point.
My self diagnosis (more on that anon) is piriformus syndrome or extreme pressure on the disc. Although I've spent a lot of time looking at my ride log for the year, it really doesn't seem to me that I've overdone it or tried to go to far or do too much climbing too soon. All of the harder efforts are preceded by shorter, easier rides.
But it's hard to argue with the result and I can't identify any other possible causes. Usually, when I hurt my back I can point to doing something stupid (lifting something heavy, being bent over for a long period of time) or an ultra hard effort on the bike. There was nearly a month between my last Everesting ride and my ride this past Sunday and although I did some longer rides in the interim, none of them were what I'd call even moderately hard efforts.
Despite Marcia and I spending the morning on the phone, the earliest Drs appointment I can get is almost 6 weeks from now (cue "Health Care in the U.S. is horrifically broken" rant) so I'm going to have to continue to self diagnose and treat.
At this point, the rosiest scenario I can envision is that I'm doing short, easy rides in 1-2 weeks working up to 30-40 mile rides in July and perhaps longer ones after that.
And I think that's the best case scenario.
So 2020 is over as far as randonneuring is concerned. I might be able to do a 200K in the fall - maybe - but it's hard for me to see how I can do e.g., my 1000K in September or the Cracker Swamp (assuming it's held) in November. I'd also begun planning for an SR600K at the end of September and I'd say that's probably not in the cards either.
I hope I'm wrong and this is a matter of a bit of rest and a return to normal but that seems wildly optimistic right now.
Stay tuned!
